Effects of land titling on child health

This paper examines the impact of urban land titling on child health. We hypothesize that land titling may translate into positive effects on health through its impact on housing investments and household structure. To address selection concerns, we take advantage of a natural experiment of land occupation in a suburban area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, that ensures that the allocation of property rights is exogenous to the characteristics of the squatters. Our results show that in the titled parcels children enjoy better weight-for-height scores (but similar height-for-age scores), and teenage girls have lower pregnancy rates than those in untitled parcels.